New Roof and Repairs are Needed Immediately!!

Jackie

Rachel

Jackie and Rachel have lived in their home for many years. They have tried to keep up with the required repairs to keep their house livable, but they are not able to do the work themselves. Below are Jackie's and Rachel's stories.

Jackie's Story:

Jackie was born in a small east Texas town located on the Louisiana border. She was the final child out of five children born to her parents, Chester and Buella . Jackie's family was quite poor, but her parents did the best that they could do to support their children. Times were not easy, and at one point, the family was forced to live in a tent. Unfortunately, the family fell on exceptionally difficult circumstances and was not able to stay together, leaving Jackie's mother with no other choice but to make the heartbreaking decision to place her four older children in Buckner's Children's Home while surrendering her youngest daughter to close friends, William and Lucille , who she trusted to take care of her four-year-old daughter until she could reclaim her. Sadly, Jackie's mother passed away shortly after she entrusted her daughter to those friends.

William and Lucille kept Jackie following her mother's tragic passing and raised her the best way that they could manage, even though they were both alcoholics and Lucille and other family members often mistreated her. Thankfully, her new father was very loving and kind, treating Jackie as his very own daughter. Growing up, Jackie attended Catholic school and was raised in the faith of her new parents. When Jackie was seventeen, she married her first husband with whom she had her son Douglas and divorced, shortly afterwards. She then married Dewey, the love of her life, and he later adopted Douglas and raised him as his own.

Before Jackie married Dewey, she worked at Stockton's in Dallas as a seamstress, sewing children's garments. Throughout her life, Jackie worked extraordinarily hard to support herself and her family, often working at her husband's side in various jobs from truck driving to hauling watermelons and making fruit baskets to house moving. Jackie and Dewey attempted to give their son every opportunity that she did not have when she was growing up. She always made certain that he had presents underneath the Christmas tree because she knew all too well how it felt to wake up on Christmas morning without any presents under the tree. Her own parents would often choose to buy alcohol instead of buying her a Christmas present.

Dewey and Jackie joined and were baptized in his mother's Pentecostal church, where she would later serve as a Sunday school teacher to preschoolers. She often remembers her time with the children with great fondness and recounts cute and heartwarming stories of her time with the children. She desperately wanted to have more children of her own, but unfortunately, it simply was not in God's plans.

When Jackie was twenty-two, she discovered the true purpose of her life when she became a nurse's aide with Smith's Nursing Services. While working at the agency, Jackie dedicated herself to taking care of her patients the best that she could and making their lives a little brighter. She worked with all populations and in all settings from the richest of estates to the poorest of homes to hospital emergency rooms and nursing facilities. She worked with everyone from the youngest of infants to Holocaust survivors to the elderly on their deathbeds. Jackie was often much more than simply a nurse's aide to her patients; she was also a friend to them, who helped them through their convalescence or sat and held their hands as they took their dying breaths. She truly cared about and oftentimes grew to love her patients, treating and caring for them as though they were family. Only a heart that is alight with the eternal love of God would be capable of such compassion and devotion. Many times, Jackie was asked to go to school to become a registered nurse, but she chose to remain a nurse's aide because she preferred to work more closely with her patients and being a registered nurse simply would not have allowed her to do that.

Rachel's Story:

My name is Rachel, and I met Jackie when I was eighteen years old and straight out of high school. I had entered a vocational training program for people with disabilities, and Jackie was my personal attendant, who took care of me during the day while I was in class. I have a disability known as cerebral palsy, and my case is fairly severe, affecting all of my physical abilities, such as speech, muscle control, and taking care of myself. Jackie and I became really good friends during that time and grew much closer through the years. She became a mom to me, and I became a daughter to her. When my grandparents were no longer able to take care of me, Jackie moved me into her house, and I became part of her family. She even purchased a bigger house so that I could have a room of my own and enough room for all of my equipment.

We paid off the house before Mom retired, but the house is in desperate need of repairs. It came down to a choice between paying off the house or making the repairs, and we prayed about it and made the decision to pay off the house.

We intended to make the repairs to the house before Mom retired, but she was forced to retire sooner than she would have liked due to health reasons. The most pressing issue that we have is our roof; it is leaking in several places and has fallen in at one place in the living room. We have attempted to obtain loans to fix the issues, but we have been turned down repeatedly due to income, credit status, and job status.

Fortunately, a good friend generously paid for having our house leveled, for which I am eternally grateful. We have tried to borrow the money to get a new roof from family members, and they don't have the money to help us. Mom's son Douglas has tried to make minor repairs to the roof, and it simply doesn't do any good in the long run. We also have attempted to locate community outreach programs that would help us make the needed repairs, but there are no programs in Ellis County to help people with house repairs.

We also have asked several other social workers about possible house repair programs in this county, but they failed to find any programs in the area.

We live on $2,017 per month between Mom's social security of $1,223 per month and my Supplemental Security Income of $794 per month.

Any help is greatly appreciated. We are praying and hoping that we can get the roof fixed very soon before winter approaches.

Thank you and God Bless.